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Clutch bleed help

D

DubaiXJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
South Africa
I developed a pinhole leak in my clutch hose and ended up spraying fluid onto the exhaust manifold. My fire extinguisher wins the man-of-the-match award!

Anyway I don't have the coin for the new sealed unit so I cut out the leaky bit and joined in a length of hydraulic hose.

Where I need some help is: I can't get the system bled properly. I've tried to gravity bleed it and poured thru at least a quart of fluid. Didn't help. Had a buddy push the clutch in with the bleeder open, release with bleeder closed, then gravity bled again and nada... I've definitely got a whole load of air out but no clutch.

The pedal feels good, my slave and master arent leaking and neither are the clamps where I put in the hydraulic hose but the clutch won't disengage. Also, the slave pushrod is properly seated in the release bearing arm.

If there's air in the system I can't get it out so any help or advise here would be appreciated because I'm lost.

Andre
 
Vacuum or pressure bleeding.

With vacuum bleeding, hook up a vacuum pump (with a fluid reservoir) to the bleed nipple and use the pump to suck fluid out until it runs "clean and clear."

With pressure bleeding, you actually hook a pressure hose on the nipple, and feed fluid through the system in reverse, theoretically pushing the air bubbles up into and through the master cylinder.

I usually vacuum bleed, and it works very well.

5-90
 
ok had this same problem had to use a larger inside diameter hose for the patch correct?
Well the pressure needed for the clutch to work right is pretty much exactly what was needed from factory(no more or less). you can always do what I did and spend about $30 at the junk yard for a 2 piece master and hose setup(from mid 80's mj) and I think it was $4 at autozone for the hydrolic coupler (compression fittings)and retro back to the older more heat resistant and more afordable setup.
I did this after snagging my plastic line in my 93 on a cactus and have had zero problems since the change and a new master is still only $65 for when that goes out too
 
Thanks guys.

I've got a '97 with the one-piece setup so no bleed nipple, only the allen grub screw on the slave. Guess that'll be pretty hard to hook up to a vacuum pump. Getting junk yard parts out here is almost impossible but I'll check tomorrow if I can find someone with a bleeder that'll fit the master cylinder cap. Otherwise, I'll have to raid to cookie jar and cough up for a replacement - I've got to get my heap thru a DOT roadworthiness test this week. At least working for Chrysler I get a decent discount...

Andre
 
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In the states you can get aftermarket replacements for the slave and MC separately, but I'm not sure if they carry the line between. My son bought one for his 96, and I found that you could put a bleeder in it, but it's supplied with a blind hole, so you have to drill the little passage at the bottom of the hole.

Supposedly, with the stock setup the displacement of the slave cylinder is just enough greater than the volume of the line that if you compress the slave by hand as far as it will go, this will bleed the line in reverse. That is the official bleeding method. But as DZraces suggests, this may not work if you have replaced the tube with a larger diameter, because the slave will not displace enough fluid. In that case, you may have to retrofit a bleeder, if you can't find a new line. I think it should work with larger tubing if you can bleed it (and, of course, if your repair holds pressure well enough).
 
DubaiXJ said:
Thanks guys.

I've got a '97 with the one-piece setup so no bleed nipple, only the allen grub screw on the slave. Guess that'll be pretty hard to hook up to a vacuum pump. Getting junk yard parts out here is almost impossible but I'll check tomorrow if I can find someone with a bleeder that'll fit the master cylinder cap. Otherwise, I'll have to raid to cookie jar and cough up for a replacement - I've got to get my heap thru a DOT roadworthiness test this week. At least working for Chrysler I get a decent discount...

Andre
Click to expand...

Hey Andre,
I live 140km away from you in Al Ain so send me a PM with your mobile no. so we can get in touch. Mine is 0508328857.
I had the same thing happen on my XJ seven months ago and I also patched up the hose with a section of SS brake line. It hasn't leaked since but I've also had trouble bleeding the clutch completely. There's still a small amount of air trapped somewhere 'cause though my pedal feels normal most of the time, every now and again it suddenly becomes heavier and feels a bit sticky. The clutch releases fine though and I don't have any trouble changing gears.
It sounds like I'll also need to vacuum bleed my hydraulic system but I don't know where I can buy a vacuum pump. Any suggestions?
____________________________
1992 XJ Laredo 4-dr - 201k miles - 27k miles on 4.6L HO Stroker
AX15, NP231, D35c, D30
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270hp@4950/327lbft@3750, 1/4 mile = [email protected], 0-60 = 5.6secs :D
Websites - Jeep 4.0 Performance, 4.6L Stroker Build-Up, Dino's Jeep Tricks
 
Dr Dyno,
You can make youre own vacuum bleeder if you can find an air pump that's suitable.
Medical air pumps, air brush air pumps. I myself use a vacuum pump that was intended for a vacuum bagging fiberglass system.
Get a glass jar with an airtight lid, drill the top for fittings. I find that mason jars are ideal.
Put barbed fittings in the top. One should have a tube that goes to the bottom, on should be short near the lid.
The fitting with the tube is what attaches to your bleeder, turn on the pumop and pour fluid in. I find that it's nice to have a real long piece of hose to attach to the bleeder, that way you can bring the jar up and out from under the truck and you can see what's going on.
I've also found that a switched electircal extension cord is great, that way you can be up front when you trun on the pump to pour fluid in.
I had many of the same problems you did until I vacuum bled my clutch, it's been fine for 6 months now. My vacuum pump pulled 16 oz of fluid in about 2 minutes, and with the small clutch M/C resovoir you really need to be ready with the fluid.
 
87manche said:
Dr Dyno,
You can make youre own vacuum bleeder if you can find an air pump that's suitable.
Medical air pumps, air brush air pumps. I myself use a vacuum pump that was intended for a vacuum bagging fiberglass system.
Get a glass jar with an airtight lid, drill the top for fittings. I find that mason jars are ideal.
Put barbed fittings in the top. One should have a tube that goes to the bottom, on should be short near the lid.
The fitting with the tube is what attaches to your bleeder, turn on the pumop and pour fluid in. I find that it's nice to have a real long piece of hose to attach to the bleeder, that way you can bring the jar up and out from under the truck and you can see what's going on.
I've also found that a switched electircal extension cord is great, that way you can be up front when you trun on the pump to pour fluid in.
I had many of the same problems you did until I vacuum bled my clutch, it's been fine for 6 months now. My vacuum pump pulled 16 oz of fluid in about 2 minutes, and with the small clutch M/C resovoir you really need to be ready with the fluid.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good idea. If I can't buy one, I'll see if I can rig one together. Thanks.
 
Here's another thought. If you can find something like a large syringe to which you can attach tubing, you can also reverse bleed the system by forcing fluid up through the slave bleeder. The factory manual for my old 72 Mercedes suggests that one way to do this is to run a hose from the bleeder on the right front caliper and use that. I never actually tried that, but it's an interesting idea.
 
Hey guys, i went through the same thing with my friends 87, we bled it the best we could by the normal pumping the pedal method 3 times and he would be fine for a few days, then it would fade. Finally i bought a mightyvac, the nice metal bodied one and pulled about 2 pints through the line in maybe 10 minutes, there was some air trapped in the line that took way more bleeding than i would have thought- after the superbleed it was fine for a trip from NY to CO. The mightyvac is a great tool to have for breaks too- highly recommend picking one up with the guage on it because you can use it to vac. and pressure test as well-
 
Matthew Currie said:
Here's another thought. If you can find something like a large syringe to which you can attach tubing, you can also reverse bleed the system by forcing fluid up through the slave bleeder.
Click to expand...

I can find a large syringe and tubing easily enough since I'm an anesthesiologist and I work in a hospital, so I might give it a try.
 
I have a somewhat similar problem on my '85. I replaced the slave cylinder and had a very hard time bleeding it. After a few scraped knuckles and swearing that I would sell the Jeep I finally thought I had all the air out and mounted the slave cylinder again. Now the pedal is extremely soft for about half the way and then feels like it hits a stop. I can (with force) press it down further, but it is still not disengaging. Any ideas?
 
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In the 21 years I've owned my '85 I've replaced the master more times than I can remember offhand and until last year I never had to bleed other than just pumping like crazy for 20 or 30 times (or whatever). It would self bleed with no problems. The last time this method would not work for whatever reason and I did the standard bleeding with no problem other than the PIA of having to remove and install the slave. I don't know how critical it is but did you clamp the slave cylinder fully up into its bore?
 
Yeah, I clamped it all the way in at first, but wasn't able to let the air out like that. After releasing the clamp slightly, the air came out, but still nogo.
 
Yep just went through the same. went to Auto-zone & rented the vacuum pump. Flushed 2 cans of Brake fluid through it to clean it out & was good to go. I was lucky & had the bleeder valve :sunshine: Original hose blew about a 3/16" hole in it. kind of strange:dunno:

Rob
 
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